Pair Keeps It Together While Volunteering

It`s what kept them together for almost 50 years, Arnold and Margot Gottlieb are convinced.

It`s what kept them believing when Arnold waved from the window of his train as it pulled out of the station, and called to Margot: ``We will be together soon.``

He was being shipped to some unknown destination, labeled an undesirable citizen; she was desperately trying to leave the country. They were young, engaged and both Jewish in Germany, a few years before war finally erupted.

Four months and some complicated visa juggling later, they were reunited and married in Scotland.

``It was fate, I think,`` Margot, now 73, says calmly.

``A miracle,`` agrees Arnold, 81.

They have bonded in that way that only people who have suffered much and learned to love through it can. Their first child was born while Arnold was imprisoned in a British camp for enemy aliens. Margot lay in the hospital, the German bombs falling outside as her baby daughter entered the world.

``She was a very nervous child for a while, because of that, but she outgrew it,`` Margot says.

Arnold: ``They were hard times.``

Margot: ``But the Scottish people were wonderful. They opened their doors to us. Once you are their friend, you are their friend for life.`` The couple retains Scottish citizenship, in deference to the nation that took them in.

The Gottliebs mesh like fine machinery. When Margot pours the coffee, she automatically offers Arnold a cookie before she takes one herself. They move comfortably through their Hollywood apartment, friendly but not overwhelmingly so, and modest.

``Please, we didn`t do this volunteering for things like these awards,`` Arnold insists. He is sincere.

Fate.

That`s what brought the Gottliebs to South Florida 10 years ago. Their daughter, Evelyn, the one born during the blitzkrieg, had married a doctor and was living in Hollywood. She was now Evelyn Glasser, a mother herself and very involved in her new community. When her parents were ready to sell their clothing store in Glasgow and retire, she asked them to consider emigrating.

Arnold: ``We wanted to be near our grandchildren and watch them grow up.``

Margot: ``Evelyn thought we would like it here. She told us about a hospital near by, where we could join the auxiliary and volunteer.``

The Gottliebs started at Memorial Hospital in Hollywood shortly after their arrival. Margot still works in the gift shop at least one day a week. While Arnold had to cut back because of his health, he helped with the hospital`s blood bank for more than six years.

Arnold also tutors children at Stirling Elementary School in Hollywood, a job he enjoys tremendously. Says Margot: ``We both like to mix with people of all ages.

The couple spends one day a week as the intake team on board the MediVan, a mobile medical unit serving Broward County`s lower-income elderly. Evelyn was one of the MediVan founders. Which makes the Gottliebs, as Arnold says, ``humbly proud.``

Their van shift brings them back to the same apartment complexes on a regular basis. ``When the people see us coming, they are so happy,`` Margot says.

Arnold: ``They treat us like their family.``

Does sharing a volunteer duty make for a little too much togetherness?

Margot laughs. ``We`ve put up with each other this many years, I imagine we can manage a few more.``

Arnold: ``Someone recently asked me how we have stayed together for 49 years. I told him I was still finding out.``

Maybe it`s just fate.

FRIDAY BREAKFAST HONORS NOMINEES

Arnold and Margot Gottlieb of Hollywood are among the nominees in the 1989 Broward Senior Hall of Fame. They will share a breakfast celebration with nine other nominees at 9:30 a.m. on Friday at David`s Custom Caterers in Tamarac. Sponsored by the Area Agency on Aging, American Express, Southern Bell and Sun Bank, the occasion recognizes Older Americans Month. For further information about the breakfast, call Gale Nelson, 485-6370.